Case Number 17508

Princess

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All Rise...

Judge Adam Arseneau is a princess...at least according to his mom.

The Charge

"I promise to take care of you always."

Opening Statement

Princess is an anti-exploitation, pornographic revenge flick of
molestation, sexual abuse of minors, vigilantism, and violence. It is in Danish.
It is also an animation. Thus, Princess completes the illustrious Triple
Crown of Messed Up Movies, a truly prestigious award.

Best that no one tell Park Chan-Wook about Princess, or else he'll
start working on a South Korean adaptation that will make everyone in the world
cry.

Facts of the Case

Thirty-two-year old clergyman August returns home from years of missionary
work after hearing about the death of his sister Christina, who…after
going from greatness to the gutter as the famous porn star "The
Princess"…has finally died of drug abuse. She has left behind her
five-year-old daughter Mia in the care of a prostitute. August visits the
brothel to bring Mia home with him and become her guardian.

Burdened by sorrow, guilt, and unspeakable rage after making some horrific
discoveries as to how Mia has been treated in his absence, August pledges to
undo the damage by erasing every trace of "The Princess." Setting out
to avenge his sister's death, he brings Mia along with him on a brutal and
violent vendetta.

The Evidence

Juxtaposing magic realism into a Danish animation film about pornography and
vigilante violence is like combining the tight rope and lion taming acts at the
circus. The audience is going to love it, but talk about a cruel balancing act.
Amazingly, Princess, created by animation prodigy Andres Morgenthaler,
pulls it all off with panache, crafting a film full of wrenching emotional
brutality, sexual perversion, and social criticism. This is not exactly the kind
of film one decides to make a cartoon of. Then again, given the thematic nature
of Princess, it is entirely probable that this film could not have been
made in any other format.

Morgenthaler invites audiences into an ugly, nihilistic world in
Princess, one that tauntingly gives way to moments of genuine beauty and
childlike wonder. Young Mia, the five-year-old heroine of the film is a
heartbreaking character, torn between the innocence of youth and the trauma of a
dysfunctional life, until August comes to rescue her. His struggle to fix
her—to restore her to the innocence now forever lost—fuels his
violent crusade to annihilate every trace of her mother's pornographic career,
including those who profited from her exploitation. For a priest, he's breaking
quite a few vows.

As the film progresses, August escalates his crusade to purify the memory of
his sister, with predictably tragic results. He trades the violence of the
pornographic industry, which destroyed the life of his sister, for actual
violence, bloodshed, and retribution, all in the hope of saving Mia. Whether
this is a particularly beneficial trade-off for the young girl is open to
debate. August, a priest who shuns his principles in favor of good old-fashioned
anger, tries his best to give Mia a happy life, but he cannot forgive the
atrocities committed against her. In her addled child mind, a life of drugs,
sex, abuse, and exploitation are normal. August, who had to watch his sister die
living exactly this life, simply cannot stand it. He cracks in a way both
uncomfortable and extremely satisfying, as we guiltily cheer him on, doling out
justice, like an especially vindictive brand of schadenfreude.

The animation style is certainly unique, a mix of vibrant colors, angular
likes and unflattering profiles that make everyone look thuggish, slimy,
crooked, and grotesque; all except Mia, who is angelic and beautiful in
contrast. Live-action home video footage intermixes throughout the film, showing
old tapes of August and his sister as a child, offering audiences a flashback
explanation as to why she chose the life she did. This ratty and degraded
videotape footage contrasts harshly against the sparse and beautiful animation
style is no doubt a conscious choice to break down the barrier between the
fantastic and the realistic. In animation style, Morgenthaler has a visual
aesthetic sharing some stylistic similarities with the early career of Ralph
Bakshi (Fritz the Cat), especially in the
often grotesque depiction of the human form and sexuality. Princess shows
some signs of a film animated on the cheap, with a jerky frame rate (low frames
per second) and minimal on-screen movement, but once the film gets rolling,
you'll barely notice.

The sheer ugliness of the world is on display here, the predatory nature of
the pornographic industry, the destructive and perverting effect on human lives.
Princess is plenty violent, with bullets and knife wounds and gushing
blood, but these pale in comparison to some of the softer and more troubling
sequences, like the reveal of bruises on Mia, or her completely twisted
perspective on sexuality. Watching a five-year-old—even an animated
one—behave like a prostitute is some seriously troubling cinema.
Thankfully, most of the sexual violence is thematic, implied and suggested
rather than depicted, or else audiences would struggle with the sheer emotional
weight of the film. As it stands, Princess is plenty powerful.

The transfer is good, not great; the low-budget and low frame-rate animation
style become most apparent in the angular blocking of black lines, the PAL
ghosting and the odd marionette movement style of characters. Colors are vivid
without being saturated, with especially sharp yellow tones. For audio, we get
both 5.1 and stereo track (in Danish) with English subtitles. The voice acting
isn't the best. Admittedly, it's hard to critique a foreign-language track, but
the clipped, almost laconic bursts of dialogue from the characters seems
awkward, even to foreign ears. The quality of the sound lends to a tinny,
compressed presentation—dialogue is clear, but sounds echoing and
hollow.

A trailer is included as the film's sole supplemental feature.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

Princess carries itself as a film with a message, a moral, but your
guess is as good as mine as to what it is. Porn is bad? Don't abuse little
girls? Those seem a bit too obvious. It's hard to escape the feeling that
Princess is a shocking and exploitative narrative without a moral
compass, a purpose to the criticism.

Closing Statement

A svelte low-budget animation and live-action film, Princess stretches
a meager budget to impressive lengths. Artistically, this is an impressive and
striking achievement, but the subject matter is extremely unforgiving. Audiences
beware: Princess is a brutal ride.

The Verdict

An original vision of a wholly unpleasant story, Princess is worth the
cost of a rental.